A silent film at the dawn of the talking picture technological revolution, City Lights appeared to popular acclaim and remains, for many, Charlie Chaplin's finest achievement. When Chaplin, known the world over for his "Little Tramp" character, began filming City Lights in 1928, talking pictures had become the rage in the movie industry, and most filmmakers who had originally conceived of their works as silent films were now adapting them into partial talkies or junking them altogether. Chaplin halted production on City Lights to weigh his options, and, when he resumed work several months later, he stunned his Hollywood peers by deciding to keep the film in a
silent form. "My screen character remains speechless from choice," he declared in a New York Times essay. " City Lights is synchronized [to a musical score] and certain sound effects are part of the comedy, but it is a non-dialogue...